The Mina Marz Incident

CHAPTER THREE

"Okay, so the power is on, but the doors are still locked," sighed Melinda after tugging on them repeatedly. "What now?"

"Like I said, requires three people to override the hard lockdown protocol. Beyond the biometrics, only other way out of here is a special master key."

"Special master key? Who has that?"

"I know of only one."

"Let me guess, Charles, right?" sighed Melinda.

Dean nodded, a slight scowl twisting his features. "Hopefully, the system did what it was supposed to do and sent a message to the team with the proper security clearance."

"Damn, wish I had my phone. I would be blowing up Charles's line right this minute. I mean, that's dangerous isn't it? Locking the doors like that? We've been down here forever! And what if the biometrics fail? How many people have the clearance?"

"Actually, now that I think about it, we could be down here awhile," said Dean, his scowl turning into a full-blown grimace.

"What do you mean? What's a while?"

"Remember how I told you the people with security clearance were gone for the day?"

"Yes."

"They are gone for more than just a day. They left right after our meetings. Shit. Conference in Vegas starts tomorrow. What time is it?"

"I don't know. I use my phone or the computer for the time. I don't think there is even a clock down here. Why?" asked Melinda with trepidation.

"They might already be in the air. They were late leaving as it was."

"Wait, do you hear that? The door handle clicked. Like someone is trying to turn it from the outside," Melinda asked as she ran back to the door. "In here, we are in here. Can you hear us? Someone call Charles Malone. Tell him to get his ass down h...."

The door swung open in the middle of her angry plea.

"My ass? Really, Fritzy," he said, returning the keyring to his pocket.

"Charles! Thank goodness.," said Melinda flinging her arms around him.

The invasion of personal space made him uncomfortable. A fact exposed as he patted her twice on the back, then forcefully picked her up and set her down a foot away. Melinda shook her head and chuckled.

"I've been locked up in a room by your programming hand, haven't seen you in person in how many years, and that is the greeting I get?"

"Never mind that. Did you see it?" Charles asked, a glimmer of excitement now sparking in his eyes.

"See what? Until a few minutes ago we were sitting in the dark, locked up in a room... something we really need to talk about. THAT was not your most genius programming idea. Seriously Charles, if you had not come, no telling how long we would have been stuck down here."

"Never mind that. We?" he asked. His guard was down. He hadn't noticed they weren't alone. He quickly turned his back to hide his face and whispered. "Who's that?"

"Dean Zigaz. Manager on the thirteenth floor. Recipient of the Team Leader Award for several years now."

"Mr. Malone. Pleasure, Sir," said Dean quietly. Recognizing the body language signals, he made no attempt to step forward or shake the man's hand.

In response, Charles glanced over his shoulder and nodded in curt greeting, "Thirteen."

"Fritzy, where's your phone?" asked Charles, again shifting his mental focus, wondering if his device was the only one affected.

"Upstairs in my desk. We ran down when the hack began. Did you get a message? Is that why you are here? How you knew to come? We were speculating it had something to do with the defense contract."

"Yes, yes. I got the message, but we weren't hacked in the way you think. You need to see this."

"See what?"

"Let's go. TNT Tower is all windows, much better than showing you on a phone. You won't believe it. Hurry!" urged Charles.

"Wait! Shouldn't we power up the systems first?" suggested Melinda. "Try to figure out what happened?"

"No, no. That won't do any good. Hurry. You have to see this!" exclaimed Charles again, running towards the stairwell. "Don't trust the elevators. Power might go out again. Must take the stairs."

Melinda and Dean followed Charles as he bounded up the stairwell, taking the steps two at a time.

"Charles, before you get up there. You should know there are quite a few employees still in the building," said Melinda, trying to keep up, her statement momentarily stopping Charles in his tracks.

After blinking rapidly and processing the information, he continued on, repeating his exclamations of urgency.

Melinda had no idea what Charles wanted to show her, but it must be important since he was continuing his climb. As they entered, Melinda's curiosity increased. Her colleagues were huddled at the windows on the north side wearing befuddled expressions. She followed Charles to an empty glass pane on the south side of the large room. He nodded and pointed to the billboards and electronic displays that littered the view as far as one could see.

"What the heck?" whispered Melinda, no one yet noticing she had returned.

"The whole district experienced a full power shut down. At least between my house and here. It may have spread further, I don't know. When the power came back, every electronic device looked like those billboards," Charles whispered back, standing beside her as if she was a barricade between himself and the others.

Dean, finally making it up the many flights, came barreling into the room. He caused such a ruckus that everyone turned their head in observation, but not a word was spoken. Kenzie just pointed out of the window, her jaw still hanging slightly open.

"What language is that?" asked Titus, breaking the silence.

"No language I've ever seen. Looks like hieroglyphics to me," said Kenzie.

"Looks like a three-year-old scribbled a bunch of nothing to me," offered Porter.

"What do you think it means?" asked Gus as the crew across the room fell silent again, having no suggestions or ideas.

"I think it is a message," whispered Charles in Melinda's ear.

"From who?" she whispered back, wide-eyed.

"From who, from where, how, why, and what does it say? All good questions. Figure it out, Fritzy," he said raising his eyebrows. "There is a pattern there."

Melinda cocked her head to the side and stared at the large electronic billboard hanging across the street. After many minutes, she closed her eyes to relieve them from the lighting stress. When she opened them again, Charles was gone. 

=================================

If you liked this chapter, please remember to click that VOTE button up top. Your kindness is greatly appreciated!

Connect with me directly at:

https://YvonneDeBandi.com

https://Facebook.com/yvonnedebandi